Winding-machine



No. 625,305. Patented May I6, I899.

P. H. CUI-ILEY.

WINDING MACHINE.

(Apph ton fil dApr 15 1897) (No Model.)

NTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PATRICK H. OURLEY, OF NORTH ANDOVER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF THREE-FOURTIIS TO JOHN F. FINN, WILLIAM E. RYAN, AND JOHN F. ROBERTS, OF LAWRENCE, MASSACHUSETTS.

WINDING-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 625,305, dated May 16, 1899, Application filed April 15, 1897. Serial No. 632,208. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PATRICK H. OURLEY, of North Andover, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in finding-Machines, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

My invention relates to improvements in winding-machines, having for its object to reduce to a minimum the breakage and wear of that portion of the machine immediately under the influence of and including the threadguide and to save as much as possible the lap waste at present resulting.

According to my invention everything in connection with the thread-guide is centered or balanced so that as the thread-guide is rapidly reciprocated (thirteen hundred and sixty reciprocations being usual per minute in the Foster winder, for instance) the shock or impulse due to the sudden checking of the momentum in reversing the direction of the 2 5 thread guide will simply stop the threadguide and will have no tendency to cause it to tip and thereby pound or wear the guiderod and thread-guide and will not break the thread-guide itself.

My invention is particularly intended for such machines as the Foster winder, to which reference has been made, in which the threadguide is reciprocated by means of a cam-slotted driving-drum, the thread-guide having its 3 5 momentum checked by spring-buffers at the end of each reciprocation. Machines of this class at present have thread-guides traveling on a bar or rod, in which guide there is a preponderance of weight at one side or the other of the bar, so that as they are suddenly stopped at the end of their travel to be moved in the opposite direction there is a sudden tendency to twist due to the lack of balance or concentricity of weight of these guides, and when it is borne in mind that thirteen hundred and sixty of these strains are brought upon the moving parts per minute it will at once be apparent that the wear and breakage must be enormous. As a matter of fact there is about twenty-five per cent. loss of time due to repairing breakage from this cause. Moreover, the jerk resulting from the wabbling or irregular movement of the unbalanced threadguide, as stated, causes a snap of the yarn and breaking off, causing it to lap on the roller. The ordinary lap waste in a machine of the kind alluded to is about one and onehalf pounds of yarn per day. These machines have pivoted guide arms or fingers, and in order to properly support the yarn and main- 6o tain the strength required in the guide arm or finger considerable metal has been put into the latter, and this aggravates the wear and breakage spoken of by reason of the fact that every time the thread-guide is stopped its momentum not only carries a portion of it on with a twisting strain of the whole device, but at the same time this same twisting or eccentric movement causes the thread-guide finger to suddenly bob up and down with a disastrous 7o jerking movement, and not only this, but What is perhaps a greater inconvenience in the practical running of the machine, the rapid vibration of the thread-guides and the consequent bobbing up and down of the pivoted arms or fingers makes it impossible to remove and replace the rolls or spools during the running of the machine, so that the entire machine has to be stopped every time a roll is to be taken out.

It is the object of my invention to remove all the objections above set forth, and to that end I provide a thread-guide having perfect balance of weight about its center of actuating movement, the thread guiding finger, moreover, being thin and flat and preferably provided with a knife-edge, so that notwithstanding the high rate of reciprocation thereof the movement is uniform and even, without any tendency to vibrate or to rack and 0 twist either the thread-guide or the adjacent parts. By reason of the even balance of the thread-guide according to my invention there is no bobbing up and down of the guidingfinger, so that the spool or roll maybe readily 5 removed and another replaced whenever necessary without in the least interfering with the running of the machine. There is no breakage due to the momentum of the parts, and the preferred form of my invention ma- 10o terially reduces the cost of manufacture.

The details of my invention will be more fully understood in the course of the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, illustrative of the preferred embodiment thereof, and the invention will be more particularly defined in the appended claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 represents in side elevation my improved thread-guide applied to ausual winding-machine. Fig. 2 is a front elevation thereof. Fig. 3 is a broken perspective of the'thread-guide and guide-rod, viewing the same from the rear side. Fig. 4: is a sectional detail on the line 4 4 of Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is a central vertical section of the parts shown in Fig. 3. Fig. 6 is a detail in elevation, illustrating the old form of thread-guide, the evils of which it is the object of my invention to overcome.

The driving-drum at, intermediate roll a, winding roll or spool a and rest a may be and are of usual construction.

Mounted in suitable posts or arms a are guide-rods B, herein shown as cylindrical in form and as provided at either end with spring-buffers I). These rods are provided with a central longitudinal slot 1).

C designates a thread-guide adapted to be reciprocated on the guide-rods B and having a body portion 0, sleeve-like in shape and concentric with the slot Z), driven by a stud O, passing through the slot and thread-guide and engaging with its head the cam-slots of the drum ct. A guide or projecting arm 0 is mounted on the body 0, preferably pivotally supported at its inner end by ears coinciding with lugs c on the body and held in place by a pivot-pin 0 as shown best in Fig. 3. This finger constitutes an important feature of myinvention and is preferably struck up from sheet-steel, the edges thereof being tapered, as indicated in Fig. 4, to present knife-edges to cut the air in the rapid reciprocation of the thread-guide.

It is to be remembered that the reciprocations of the thread-guide are extremely rapid, and that as a result the air resistance is a considerable factor in the operation of the machine.

As commonly constructed the thread-guides are formed as I have shown in Fig. 6, where it will be seen that the guiding-finger (Z is cast metal of considerable size and provided with an enlarged head (1, which not only offers material resistance to the air, but also makes the end of the guiding-fingers so top-heavy as frequently to cause them to break oif by momentum, owing to the extremely-rapid vibrations of the thread-guide. Again, it will be noticed in Fig. (5 that the under side of the threadguiding finger is hollowed out at (P, and in practice this results in wearing a bur thereon by the contact thereof with the rest a this bur scarfing and cutting the thread disastrously in the operation of the machine. The fiat steel finger of my construction entirely obviates this, not only making a light evenlybalanced finger, but also presenting a fiat smooth side on its under surface against the rest a so that there is no tendency of the same to form any bur.

Referring again to Fig. 6, d designates the usual buffer-spring as commonly employed in these machines, and the dotted lines there indicate the effect of the springs upon the thread-guide as commonly constructed, from which it will be seen that as the thread-guide is stopped by the spring (1 contacting therewith the forward end of the thread-guide is suddenly pulled down and the following end is pushed up, while the top-heavy construction of the thread-guide gives the latter increased momentum at the upper side, which still further tends to carry the upper side of the guide forward and to rack and twist the same as well as to wear unduly the guide-bar. The result is that the guiding-fingers d are Very frequently broken off either at their stems or at-their pivotal union with the body of the guide, or the ears of the latter are broken off, and in any case the body of the guide is very quickly worn, so as to fit loosely upon the guide-bar and run unevenly, thereby at once exaggerating all the disadvantages which I have mentioned and quickly ruining the guides and guide bar. By my construction the weight of the thread-guide is disposed about the driving-stud C and is concentric with the buffers b, so that when the threadguide at the end of its reciprocation is suddenly stopped the momentum distributes itself in all directions, and there is no tendency to rock or ti p on the guide-bar; but, on the contrary,the momentum eXpends itself on the buffer directly without the jerk or strain on the guide-rod, without any twisting on the threadguide, and without any tendency to bob the guiding-finger up and down. Moreover, the thin edge of the guiding-finger cuts the air with least resistance, and its taper shape affords all the stren gth required ,preventin g itsbreakin g, while the fiat under portion thereof prevents the forming of burs and obviates all filing thereof, all of which features produce a perfectly-running thread-guide which will last as long as the machine.

The cylindrical form of aperture in the sleeve-like body of the thread-guide is preferred for the reason that it may be accurately formed and adjusted at minimum expense, being readily reamed out perfectly at one operation, whereas the old form of square threadguide required absolutely accurate and expensive hand-filing in order to get the nicety of adjustment necessary.

Not only is there a great savingin breakage of the thread-guide by the construction of my improved guide, but also a material saving in driving studs. The old construction, as

shown in Fig. 6, in which the stud fitted into the aperture 19 resulted in considerable strain and large breakage of the driving-stud, whereas in my construction, in which the driving is all from the center without any top-heavy construction or strain or twisting of the stud and guide, the latter is found to last much longer than heretofore.

Various changes in form, arrangement, and proportions of parts may be resorted to Within the spirit and scope of my invention. 1 regard myself as a pioneer in the matter of providing a slot through the entire guiderod, also in the matter of driving from the center in this style of winder-that is to say, of having the Weight evenly balanced, so that the thread-guide is stopped at its center of momentum.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is*

1. Inawinding-machine,ahorizontalguide rod, having a longitudinal slot therethrough, a reciprocable thread-guide traveling on said rod, a traverse drum adjacent and outside of said guide-rod,- a stud mounted in said thread-guide and extending from side to side of said rod through said slot beyond said thread-guide to engage said drum, and bufiers concentric with said rod, substantially as described.

2. In a Winding-machine, a horizontal cy lindrical guide-rod, having a central longitudinal slot therein extending through from side to side of the rod, a reciprocable thread-guide substantially balanced to travel on said rod, a traverse drum mounted outside of and adjacent to said rod, a stud to engage said drum, said stud being mounted in said thread-guide and extending through said slot, and buffers concentric with said rod, substantially as described.

3. A thread-guide, having a body portion to travel on a guide-rod, and a short guidefinger projecting therefrom, said finger being thin and fiat throughout its length, to cut the air in its reciprocations, and having a Wide base, tapered thence to its point, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

PATRICK H. CURLEY.

Vitnesses:

JAMEs KIERNAN, WILLIAM A. DALY, 

